[Cerebral amyloid angiopathy in Alzheimer's disease: with special reference to its incidence and distribution]

In 10 autopsied cases of terminal stage of Alzheimer's disease, the incidence and distribution of amyloid angiopathy (AA) in the brain were measured under light microscope. Further, the distribution and intensity of Alzheimer's neurofibrillary change (NFT), senile plaque (SP), and loss of neurons (CL) were compared among the individual cases. NFT and SP were frequently seen over wide areas with little individual variations. AA was present in all cases, but its distribution and frequency markedly differed from individual to individual. Generally, AA was relatively common in the pia and cortical upper layers of the frontal, temporal and occipital lobe, orbital gyrus and cerebellum, but there was no particular site showing very high rate of occurrence. SP and NFT had no correlation to AA in regard to their site and frequency. In all cases, the nucleus basalis of Meynert showed marked loss of neurons and very frequent occurrence of NFT.